Navajo (Diné or Naabeehó)

The Navajo are the second largest federally recognized tribe in the United States with 300,460 enrolled tribal members as of 2015. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body that manages the Navajo reservation in the Four Corners area, including over 27,000 square miles of land in Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. The Navajo language is spoken throughout the region with most Navajo speaking English as well.​

The states with the largest Navajo populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (108,306). Over three-quarters of the Navajo population reside in these two states.[3]

Navajo Nation Fair

Code Talkers

The Navajo language was used to develop a secret code that helped the U.S. during WWII. The original code was developed by 29 Native Navajo soldiers. It remains the only code to have never been broken.

Ceremonial Dancer

For the Navajo, dance is a form of honoring one’s self and the connection with one’s surroundings. Dance has a healing purpose is a way of carrying on the traditional teachings and history of the Navajo people.

Navajo Jewelry

The early production of jewelry centered in the Four Corners region of the American Southwest was dominated by silversmiths. Early in the 1800s, Spanish and, later, Mexican, silver buttons and bridles became available in what is now Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and, Utah through acquisition and trade. Navajo (Diné) artists began working silver in the 1850s after learning the art from Mexican smiths. Atsidi Sani, or "Old Smith," (c. 1828-1918) may have been the first Navajo blacksmith and is credited as the first Navajo silversmith. He learned to work silver from a Mexican smith as early as 1853. Turquoise is closely associated with Navajo jewelry, but it was not until 1880 that the first turquoise was known to be set in silver. Turquoise became much more readily available in ensuing decades. Coral and other semi-precious stones came into common use around 1900. (Adapted from Wikipedia).